Ghost Rider - In the flesh
by EarthCat
Summary: Blackheart is back to get his revenge- one way or another. Johnny, Nadya und Danny are living together, Mephistofeles wants to get the world under his heel, his wife, who had once had an amour with Zarathos, is put together with the Ghost Rider, into a young woman and into all that Blackheart is on the hunt for a new mighty source of power to overthrow his father.
1. Chapter 1

Ghost Rider - In the flesh

The evening light of the waning sun bathed the faces of the two dark-skinned people in rosy glow , when they came out of the village church.  
The old lady took the little girl by the hand and led her , as they set out for home. The last daylight accompanied them, until they reached the edge of town.  
The houses stood black and menacing against the night sky and between the streets a few hissing cats chased each other.  
The old lady hesitated.

It was not her usual route, but the church had came to an end later than usual and so she had to take the abbreviation through this hood .  
It was one of the poorer areas of the city , one that a child and an old woman should not enter alone. However, the Little One began to be fretful and the way around the neighborhood would have taken too much time. For a while she stood in the night coolness hesitating and considered-

She should had thought about it before, which way she would be coming home again .  
" ... Sorry! " Cried a friendly voice behind them.  
The old lady turned around.  
A young man closed up to them. "Excuse me, that I mug you like that, but I need to get to the Kensington Drive. It is so scary alone. Could I accompany you just a little perhaps, please? "  
The woman was for a moment uncertain whether she should say yes , but it was a good solution.  
When the young man wanted to rob them, that he might as well do it as another one. And if he did not want to do that, they would have a good accompaniment.  
" That's good . " She replied, "I need to get to the Kensington Drive too. Come. "  
The young man smiled and strolled along beside them, his hands thrust in his pockets . Nothing happened , except that the darkness and the silence strained the nerves of the old nanny . But they happy and unmolested reached the Kensington Drive, where everything was brightly lit.  
A well-maintained road stretched before them, new, black tar lined with friendly family row houses, pretty hibiscus bushes and beech trees grew up on neatly trimmed green stripes , subtly lit by the outside lights at the front doors.  
"Just a moment , please. " The young man asked politely and stopped. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a marble .  
"Here, little one." He said smiling and held the small glass ball towards the child.  
The girls reached out with shining eyes and smiled. When her fingers touched the marble, coldness shot like lightning up her arm.

Startled she let go again and started to cry heartbreakingly.

The marble hit the floor clicking and vanished into thin air. No one noticed it.

"Oh, what is it?!" The young man asked concerned.

"Ah, she´s just very tired already. I thank you for accompanying us. Good night. Come, Salome, we´ll go in..."

The old lady nodded at the young man and carried Salome to the door.

The outside light went on automatically, but the light seemed to avoid the figure of the man, who still stand on the street, and who looked after the nanny and the infant smiling.

It wasn´t a good smile.


	2. Chapter 2

Skye woke up startled. Her sister was crying. Like every night around this time. Probably had to be brought to the toilet.  
Groaning, Skye buried her face back in her pillow. She wanted to sleep.  
When the howling had not stopped after five minutes, although the voices of their parents sounded from the other side, she got up sleepily and lumbered into the room of Salome.  
"What is going on here?" She growled tired. "Can´t she now be quiet?"  
"Oh, she is sick."Her mother replied pitiful. "Really hot forehead and ice-cold hands."  
Muttering Skye returned to her room.  
But the hubbub continued.  
Eventually, however, the noises suggested that their mother was going to take Salome to a doctor. Then there was silence.  
Skye fell asleep.  
The next day, however, seemed to have brought no improvement.

Doctor Carter was present, one of the primary care physicians around. Skye's mother knelt beside the bed, her eyes were red and she seemed as if she had not come to rest all night.  
"What's going on?", The young woman asked with increasing restlessness.  
Her mother sobbed and her father put his arms around her.  
"Your sister is very ill." The African said gloomily.  
"What? Why, what's wrong with her?"  
"We do not know."  
"For some reason her organs fail to work." Doctor Carter said regretfully.  
Skye's mouth fell open in horror. "B-but you can help her, right?"  
The doctor took off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed his nose.  
"... I'm really very sorry."  
"We'll find someone who can help her!" Skye's father Joseph said to her mother.  
She sobbed again and nodded.  
"I'm disconsolent." Sighed Carter. "But the time this´d take is probably no longer left to you."  
"W-w-what do you m-mean?", Skye's mother managed to say, her face stone-grey.  
Carter suddenly looked much older than he actually was.  
"... I ... give her ... less than 24 hours."

The asphalt began to glow slightly as Zarathos stepped onto it and a faint whispering rustle ran through the leaves of the trees and shrubs all around, as if nature itself would welcome the angel of justice.  
It was chilly. Crickets chirped sporadically a lonely song.  
Zarathos put his head back to look at the stars, small diamonds in black velvet, and inhaled deeply the scent of the night through his skeletonized nostrils.  
If he had had lips, he would have smiled. His fire burned smoothly and evenly in bright blue, peaceful as his mind.  
He closed the door of the house, that Johnny, Nadya and Danny shared at the moment and walked relaxed over to his motorcycle, which welcomed him with a faint roar of the engine.  
With the elegance of years of practice he swung his leg on the wide saddle and kicked the starter. The enthusiastic roar of the engine shook the night.  
Flames blazed and marked the way the Ghost Rider had taken.

Upstairs in the house Danny climbed back into the bed, from which he had fallen, as the Rider had mounted his vehicle in the courtyard below.  
"Accursed bone head! That I'll never get used to!" Chuntered the son of the devil and pulled the duvet up under his nose.


	3. Chapter 3

Skye rushed out of the house.  
Blinded by tears, she stumbled into the garage, jumped on the motorcycle of her father started it. The engine roared loudly and the machine shot on the road bucking.  
After a moment, Skye got the bike under control and drove down the street, paying no attention to the way she took.  
Only when a low-hanging branch slapped her in the face on a bumpy road, she came to her senses, realized where she was after a moment.  
Just around the next corner was the cemetery.

She turned the key, put the kickstand out with some effort and dismounted with shaky legs.  
The sunlight bathed the clean, pretty place with cruel beauty in golden shimmer. Hesitantly Skye crept between the grave stones until she arrived at the familiar, light gray stone, on which the names of her own ancestors were engraved.  
"Joanne Slade" was at the bottom.  
The name of her grandmother chocked Skye. Would soon the name of her sister be here?  
The young woman sank down on the grass and began to sob again.  
The pain was so intense that it seemed almost unreal. Skye cried until her eyes were red and her throat rough and she had no energy left.  
The grass fell towards her and caught her gently.  
For a while she lay still, of no clear thought capable. Then something soft touched her hand.  
She sat up and saw a small cat.  
The animal got purring on her lap and licked with warm, rough tongue her tears away. An unusually confiding animal.  
It took a moment, Skye until came to her senses. Then she pushed down the cat of herself and stood up.  
The animal did not bother about the ungentle handling but kept rubbing its flank at Skye's legs, purring loudly, until the young woman bent down and stroked it gently.  
"What do you want?" She asked softly. "I can not give you any love. I'm sad, you know?"  
The cat ran a few steps away, stopped, looked back at her and meowed softly.  
Skye sat up. As the animal meowed again, she followed it hesitantly. Again and again it stopped, looked over its shoulder and waited until Skye had approached. Then it finally disappeared through the doorway of a small chapel.  
"Hey, wait! You can not go in there!"  
But it could and the young woman followed her.  
Inside it was dark.  
Skye pulled out her cell phone and turned the screen brightness on full, so she could see a thing.

The cat sat high on something that she could not accurately identify and stared at her with glowing green eyes. The young woman crept cautiously closer, careful not to trip and squinted to see anything.  
The animal sat on a coffin.

The lid was ajar, pushed to the side. When Skye came closer, the cat reached into the gap with its paw. Skye pushed it to the side, shone in, and then brought a roll of paper to light.  
She hurried back to the entrance and read in the in-falling light what was written there.  
With each line with hre eyes went wider.  
Testament, stood there. Carter Slade. Ghost Rider. Mephistofeles. Contract.  
"... Nonsense." She finally snorted and threw the roll back into the darkness.  
For a moment she stood still, thinking.  
"Nonsense!" She repeated louder and then strode angrily back to her motorcycle.  
Cursing to herself she mounted it and drove back home.  
Her mood had reached the darkest point. And her sister still hung in mortal danger.

The rest of the day she spent praying.  
She called a priest, with whom she went through everything that could be helpful.  
She prayed rosaries, confessed, lit candles, droned the psalms, and ... and ... and ...  
But when evening fell, Salome's health status had degraded again drastically.  
Doctor Carter checked her pulse from time to time with a solemn expression.  
The pastor prayed with enervating voice and made the sign of the cross over Salome.  
To see that made Skye suddenly furious. She prayed here for her sister, put all her hope in God's hands, but what happened? Absolutely nothing!  
When DID God help one if you prayed at all? Never! God! If He existed, what Skye doubted gradually, then he didn´t give a tinker´s damn about what happened to Salome!  
Carter took the child's wrist again and shook his head gloomily.

Tears shot in Skyes eyes. She jumped up, tore the cross that hung over the bed from the wall and hurled it angrily out the window.  
"Bastard," she yelled after Jesus figure. "Fuck off!"  
Then she spun around again to the intoning priest who just picked a frond to sprinkle Salome with holy water.  
She yanked the fronds away, threw it behind her and hit the bucket with the holy water out of his hand, so that his cassock became completely soaked at the front.  
"AAH!" She shouted angrily. "Out! Get lost! And take your sanctimonious God with you!" And she said to her mother: "She is NOT dead YET!"  
And she stormed out of the house.  
Outside, she threw the head back and screamed with might and main:  
"IF GOD WON´T HELP ME THEN HOW ABOUT THE DEVIL! ONE OF YOU GUYS HEAR ME?! I! WANT! HELP!"  
She trailed off.  
Listened, breathed heavily, but all she heard was her own panting.  
Again the despair overcame her. On no one you could rely nowadays. Probably the devil had retired long ago.  
Skye narrowed her eyes tightly to keep from crying.  
She turned- and screamed in fright in a low voice.  
Before her stood a unknown man, and smiled at her.


End file.
